


You Danced Barefoot and Your Hair Was A Mess

by SereneCalamity



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Based by the beach, F/M, Getting Together, Steve and Jonathan are roomies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 08:15:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17639147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneCalamity/pseuds/SereneCalamity
Summary: From the minute that Steve saw Nancy, he was head over heels.





	You Danced Barefoot and Your Hair Was A Mess

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely love this song, and the first time I heard it, all I could think about was Stancy. So here we go!  
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the title and verse, which comes from How Can I Forget by MKTO.

_You wore that white sundress, smoked a clove cigarette_   
_Danced barefoot and your hair was a mess_   
_You drove a Jeep Cherokee but no money for gas_   
_Coulda looked at you all day long, all day long_   
_You tried to downplay your beauty but you couldn't fool me_   
_You tried to play like you're tough but you grew up by the beach_   
_Said you hated the world but somehow you liked me_   
_Coulda looked at you all night long, all night long_   
_Coulda looked at you all night long, all night long_

Steve Harrington had only been in Los Angeles for two days when he first met Nancy Wheeler. He had lived in Hawkins his whole life, and after barely graduating high school and interning for the past year in his fathers law firm, he finally decided that he just needed to get out of Hawkins and away from everything that he had was just  _used_  to, that he was  _bored_  with.

Everything he knew was in Hawkins— _everyone_  he knew—except for Jonathan Byers.

Jonathan had lived in Hawkins with his family up until he was seventeen, when his little brother, Will Byers, had been kidnapped. The local chief of police had been close friends with the boys mother, Joyce Byers, and he hadn't let the department—or the town—rest until Will had been found. Afterwards, he and Joyce had actually gotten together, but the pair of them had decided to get out of Hawkins all together, given the bad memories that both of them had there and that her children now had. So they had moved to Los Angeles and started fresh.

Jonathan and Steve hadn't been the best of friends when they were younger, they were polar opposites—Steve was rich and Jonathan absolutely was not. Steve was popular and Jonathan preferred to fly under the radar. Steve was the life of a party and Jonathan  _hated_  parties.

But a year or so before Will went missing, Jonathan and Steve were paired together in Chemistry class, and things had actually clicked between them. They had gotten on really well, and they had been friends ever since. Steve had been heavily involved with the search parties looking for Will, and had been the shoulder that Jonathan had cried on the third day that Will was missing and Jonathan couldn't seek comfort from his mother because _he_  was the one holding her up. After Jonathan had moved away, they had stayed in contact, and Steve had wanted to go out and visit him, but his father was adamant that he stay in Hawkins and intern at the law firm before going to a nearby university to start his law career.

Which was never going to happen, given his grades, and the fact he had absolutely _no interest_  in becoming a lawyer.

Now, though, he was  _finally_  going to visit Jonathan. Although...It turned out to be a lot more permanent than just a week long visit, which he hadn't really planned on that when he had first driven there in his SUV.

But after meeting Nancy...Well, his mind was pretty much made up.

Los Angeles had been good for Jonathan—for his whole family, actually. Joyce and Chief Hopper were smiling more freely, Will had a boyfriend with a wild mop of hair—who actually turned out to be Nancy's younger brother, which is how Jonathan had met her in the first place—and Jonathan just seemed looser, less tense, not so wound up, like he always used to be. He was wearing more colour and had gotten a hair cut that actually let his face show and he held himself up straighter.

"You're telling me that Jonathan Byers actually has  _friends_?" Steve had jibed gently as they parked up at a secluded looking tangle of trees and bushes, which apparently hid a beach. There were a couple of other cars parked there, but it didn't look like an actual car park, nothing like the other beaches they had gone to near or in the city over the past few days.

"Your surprise hurts just here, just a little," Jonathan tapped at his heart, with a mock-wounded expression on his face. Steve grinned at the easy, joking exchange, but honestly, he was so happy for Jonathan. He had been a loner back in high school, even after he and Steve had become friends, they didn't really hang out throughout the school day because Jonathan wasn't a fan of Steve's other friends. Sometimes they would, but most of the time, Jonathan would eat in the library while studying, or in the dark room, while developing photos.

"Well, come on then, Byers," Steve grinned and looped a towel around his neck, shoving back his hair which was getting just a little out of control these days, to the point where usually he had it twisted up in an elastic band. "Introduce me." Jonathan grinned, grabbing a towel from the back of his car and his camera, slinging the band around his neck and then leading the way. There was a track of beaten down long grass that they followed, having to duck under a couple of branches, getting closer to the sound of Green Day which was probably playing on someones speaker. It was only a short walk and then they were on sand, walking to a small cove. It was pretty and secluded, trees and rocks in the water where the hills curved around the hidden area, and there were only about ten people there, a lot less than the other beaches.

"Jon!" Came a shout from a girl with wavy blonde hair.

"Jon?" Steve smirked at Jonathan, who shot him a playful, narrow-eyed look before picking up the pace toward the group of people. There were a couple in the water but most of them were all around a bonfire that was built. The music had changed, to a female artist that Steve didn't know, and that was when he saw her for the first time.

Nancy.

She was dancing in front of a grumpy looking guy who was sitting down, huffing away on a cigarette. She was laughing and bouncing around, obviously not taking herself too seriously as she waved her arms in weird motions, clearly trying to get the guy to lighten up and dance with her. Steve spared a glance at the guy, who he guessed must have been her boyfriend, but his eyes were drawn back to her almost immediately. She was wearing a white sundress that skimmed at her thighs and had flowy sleeves and her hair was in golden-brown waves down to her shoulders and there looked liked about twenty rings on her fingers, making them sparkle in the setting sun.

"C'mon, Billy," Nancy was urging. "Get your ass up."

"I'm not fucking dancing, Nance," Billy Hargrove responded with a shake of his head, but the grumpy expression had dropped and he couldn't hide the small curve of a smile. She pouted at him and stopped dancing to look toward the people in the water.

"Liam!" She shouted. "Make your boyfriend dance with me!" The relief that washed over Steve almost made his knees buckle as he realized that the guy  _wasn't_  her boyfriend.

"It's never gonna happen, Nance!" Liam Waters shouted back with a laugh. "Billy doesn't dance—except for me!" There was a hoot from one of the other guys in the water and laughs from a few of the girls and when Nancy turned around, she was grinning, although she tried to frown at Billy.

"Ain't gonna happen, Nance," Billy laughed and then pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and held it up to her. Nancy stuck her tongue out at him adorably, shaking her head at the cigarette, and then twirled around, her dress spinning around her waist and showing of her white and pink striped bikini bottoms. The blonde who had called out to Jonathan when they had first appeared skipped over to them, throwing an arm around Jonathan and then leaning in to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey! You must be Steve. I'm Chloe Bishop," she smiled as she leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek as well. "I've heard all about you."

"Oh, have you now?" Steve raised an eyebrow as he looked at Jonathan, because he had heard  _nothing_  about the blonde, but Jonathan had never been very good at talking about his personal life, especially over the phone or by text, given the long distance that their friendship had stretched over. Jonathan sent him a quick pleading look though, so Steve didn't say anything further about that, just grinned. "This place is incredible."

"It is, right?" Chloe grinned as she turned around, her arm still tightly around Jonathan's neck. "It's technically private property, belongs to some old guy who owns a bunch of properties and shit around here. But Nance's mum works for him, and he said that we can come down here whenever we want." Steve nodded, eyes going back over to Nancy, who was tugging at the hand a pretty girl with glasses and red curls. The three closed the gap between themselves and the group of people around the bonfire. Jonathan began introducing Steve to people, including Barbara Holland, who Nancy was trying to get to dance with her, but then Nancy's attention shifted and her eyes landed on Steve. They narrowed, but there was a smirk on her face as she pointed at him, before turning her hand and crooking her finger, towards herself.

" _You_ ," she said with a grin. "Dance with me." Steve was already pulling the towel off his shoulders and dropping it to the sand next to a cooler and a pile of clothes and then he was taking her hand. There were a few laughs as Steve began dancing with Nancy, but none of them were in a mean way, they were playful and happy. Nancy's hands were warm as they gripped Steve's, and he lost count of how many times he twirled her around, sending her spinning and kicking up tufts of sand, and her hands went around his waist to pull him in circles with her.

It was a beautiful night.

There was music, a few bottles of alcohol pulled out of coolers, a joint being passed around, marshmallows roasted over the bonfire, and coming and goings from the shallow water of the cove.

By the time Steve was stumbling back to Jonathan's car in the early hours of the morning, he was pretty sure he was in love.

Nancy.

She was beautiful and hilarious and there was something about just being in her presence that made him feel drunk and  _free_.

The week that Steve had loosely planned to stay in Los Angeles stretched into a month, and then Chief Hopper was helping him find a job with a few friends of his who had a painting company. It wasn't something that Steve had ever really paid any attention to in the past, but he actually quite liked it. They were mainly residential properties, although there was a new commercial building that was being built and apparently they had a contract to work there, and if Steve wanted, he had a spot on the team.

So he took it.

Jonathan had still been living at home, but he had some money together and had been planning on moving out, and so with Steve staying around, it made sense that they move in together. They found an apartment that Jonathan would never have been able to afford by himself, but Steve had a lot of money in his account that his parents deposited into every few weeks, and that covered their bond, and then they had their own place. It was a two bedroomed house with a tiny bathroom but a pretty spacious and modern kitchen and lounge, and even a backyard that was big enough for them to put a picnic table with chairs.

Will and Mike were there a lot, and their friends came over a bit as well. Steve didn't mind, they made the house feel full and happy, and there were nights when all of their little group was there—they called themselves a  _party_ —and Nancy was as well, and Chloe, and they would order pizza and they would all be crowded in the lounge, fighting over who's turn it was on the playstation. Steve wouldn't mind about his own turn, slouched back in the corner of the couch with a beer resting on his knee, fingers around the neck, watching the people in the room, the friends that he had made.

And especially Nancy.

With her curly hair and lightly freckled cheeks and bright smile, she might not be the most strikingly beautiful girl in Los Angeles. Maybe she wasn't blonde with long legs and tanned, flawless skin. She had a few scars on her knees and a couple on her cheeks from where she had chicken pox when she was little and had scratched at them. Maybe she wasn't going to be on the cover of magazines and catch the attention of every single person walked by.

But Steve couldn't understand why.

He had no idea why people weren't tripping over their feet to get closer to her.

There was this magnetic energy that buzzed around her and Steve had to literally fight with himself not to move to her side every time they were around each other. She laughed loudly and she loved fiercely, acting like a mother hen with the younger kids, smacking loud kisses to their cheeks when they were around, and Mike acted as though he was embarrassed by his older sister, but Steve saw the grin on his face when he was wiping lipstick smears off his cheek. She sang along—terribly, but adorably—to almost every song that came on the radio and she would dance down the aisles of Walmart without caring who looked at her. She drove an old beat up Jeep that had a hundred things wrong with it with little dings and scratches all over that she seemed to love more than life itself, and she worked at an ice cream parlor when she wasn't studying early childhood education at one of the local universities.

Steve had seen her with kids.

She was going to be an incredible teacher.

Add that to the list of things she was amazing at.

It was after Steve had been there nearly three months when they first kissed. He had wanted it to be sooner, hell—he would have been ready for it the night that they had met, but he had always held himself back, not wanting to ruin things by rushing into them. Jonathan and Chloe were officially together at this point and she was almost a permanent staple in their household, and Billy and Liam had been making jokes that were less and less subtle with every passing day about the sexual tension between Nancy and Steve. Nancy was the one that made the move, one afternoon when it was just the two of them at Steve and Jonathan's place, after they had run in from his car with the groceries they had brought for the nachos they were making for everyone tonight.

It was raining—pouring, actually—and it was cold, since they were getting closer and closer to winter, and Steve went to his room to change into something dry, and brought back a pair of his smallest sized sweatpants and a long sleeved sweatshirt. Nancy was in the kitchen, the curls of hair a darker shade than usual and clinging to her cheeks and neck, trails of water making their way down her skin and under her shirt as she moved around to put away their groceries.

"Here," Steve said with a smile, holding out the clothes. "You can put these on while you put your things in the dryer."

"You trying to get my undressed there, Harrington?" Nancy smirked up at him as she took the clothes from him, her eyes glittering mischievously. Steve's eyes widened and he almost choked on the breath he had just inhaled.

"Wh— _no_ , I was just—"

"And why not?" Nancy's smile dropped to something a bit more secretive and intimate and she quirked an eyebrow at him, tilting her head to the side. "Would there be something wrong with that?" Steve's eyes widened even more, his eyebrows almost disappearing under his floppy fringe.

"What—n-no! Of course not!" Steve was being the absolute opposite of smooth, which was something he had always tried to be around Nancy, even though he knew that he completely failed a solid eighty percent of the time. "I've seen you in a bikini and I'm sure that you would look—you would look great undressed," he managed to say and Nancy's eyebrows shifted, pulling together, and Steve regretted what he said. "Okay, that came out a little creepy, but what I meant was—"

"Shit, you're a mess," Nancy let out a laugh, and then she was leaning forward and bringing their mouths together. Steve stood stock still for a moment, until the cold from her mouth shook him out of the daze that had settled over him and then he was kissing her back, moving his body forward to line up with hers, their toes pressing together and his torso coming in contact with her wet shirt, not caring that she was still in her rain-damp clothes. Nancy twined her arms around his neck and tugged him in closer, stepping back until she was firmly pressed between the bench and him. Her lips warmed up quickly from his own, and when he finally pulled back, she was grinning, her mouth a little redder than it had been before. "I've been waiting a while for you to do that."

"Oh, sorry," Steve made a face at her, flexing his fingers on her hips. "My bad." Nancy let out a laugh that washed over him and made him feel as though he was back on that beach with her, the first night that they had met, when she was spinning around with bare feet and her hair flying everywhere.

She was even more beautiful today than she was then.

"It's okay, as long as you promise to do it a whole lot more," she told him and Steve grinned, leaning forward to capture her mouth in another kiss by way of answer.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think x


End file.
